Gila Hot Springs

October 11, 2015

Las Cruses, NM -> Hillsboro: 84 miles
Time on bikes: 7:15hrs

We started off our morning with an egg breakfast & coffee that Sara made for us!! Thanks again Sara & Jason for everything :) The ride was very nice and it was the perfect temperature. Joe and I had been waiting for Sparky's all morning! Sparky's is a burger place that Joe and I had heard about from lots of people. They are famous for their green chile cheeseburger. It was delicious!! 

There was another touring couple, Michael & Ingrid, at Sparky's and what's crazy is that they are going to be in Baja during the winter just like us! AND Michael kiteboards for Best Kiteboarding and Joe did the same thing! Anyways it's a crazy small world and we may end up sharing rent with them in Baja :) After lunch we had about 40 miles to go with some hill climbing at the end of the day. The last 30 miles were pretty tough. I was ready to be at the campsite. However the ride was beautiful! We saw the sunset over the mountains & pulled into Hillsboro just as it was getting dark. As we pulled into a random RV park we met a couple families that were sitting by their campfire. We probably said about 2 words to them before they asked if we wanted to shower in their RV and if we wanted some dinner. I couldn't have wanted anything more at that moment :) I took a shower and when I was done Lisa already had dinner ready for us. Pork chops, baked beans, Mac & cheese, baked potato, & salad!!! It was a feast for us! Not to mention pumpkin pie that we couldn't have enough of....ahh everything was so delicious. After we ate, all of us sat around the fire and shared stories :) it was a perfect relaxing end to a long day. At one point I smelled bacon and apparently Lisa was cooking us breakfast burritos for the morning time! That was incredibly sweet of her I can't  even say thank you enough! In the morning we had the hearty burritos and coffee to get us going. While we were leaving, Lisa hands us chocolate, granola bars, and trail mix! Wow...after all that she had given us...she just kept giving! We are literally eating the snacks she gave us right now. Thank you SO much to Lisa, Calvin, Mercedes, Louise, Rick, & Alex!!! 

October 12, 2015

Hillsboro, NM -> Gila Hot Springs: 79 miles
Time on bikes: 8:02hrs

It was a perfect start to an amazing day! Joe and I biked through the most beautiful places. The climbs were pretty rough. We climbed at least 5,000 ft today and got to probably the highest elevation for the whole trip (8,400). Halfway through our day we took a spur on our maps. We could either go 29 miles to Silver City OR go 98 miles to Silver City but get to go to hot springs somewhere in between. We decided to do the hot springs of course. When we got to about 60 miles we were ~14 miles and a giant hill away from the hot springs. Both of us were beat and it was already 5pm. Joe and I agreed that it wouldn't be horrible if we got a ride to the top of the hill considering we were taking a spur and going way more miles than we needed. No cars were around so we decided to start climbing the hill and stop if a car came by. No cars came & that was a never ending hill. We climbed 1300 ft at the end of the day within 9 miles. I honestly don't know how I did it...my legs didn't want to go any further. Somehow I made it to the top & even after that there were a few hills. It was dark as we were going down the mountain. I didn't get to enjoy that downhill at all...had my hands on the brakes the whole time bc I couldn't see the next turn & I didn't want to fly off the mountain. As bad as it sounds we didn't plan on biking that late, but we were too close to camp. We finally made it to Gila Hot Springs around 8pm. It took us 3 hours to bike 14 miles!! Haha That's how bad it was! Somehow I don't hate today though. We got to see so many beautiful places, sit in a hot spring, and I pushed myself harder than I ever have. We ended up biking 84 miles for the day! Tomorrow morning we sleep in :)